They didn’t call the Aurors after all; the Malfoys just didn’t trust them enough. They preferred Harry to inform the Order and clear them all of all charges. Snape had actually agreed with this course of action and Apparated Hermione and Harry back to the little house they’d spent too much time in recently.

 Harry sunk down on the sofa; he didn’t think he’d ever been that tired in his life. Hermione offered tea which was gladly accepted. Snape took the whiskey and sat down on the comfy chair closest to the fire.

 “So,” Hermione started, she’d already found some new book to study. “What are we going to do now? I think I will go back to school and finish my N.E.W.T.s and then I might study at a good Wizarding University.”

 Harry nodded absently and sipped his tea. “I don’t know what I am going to do. It’s like… I don’t know, I have been working towards this one thing for so many years and now it’s over and… um. I just don’t know.”

 Snape turned towards Harry and raised his glass to him. “I could have said it better, however, I agree, as much as it pains me.”

 There was a silence, only interrupted by the sipping of tea and whiskey.

 “You shouldn’t drink so much, Severus. It’s not good for you,” Hermione said.

 She earned herself a humourless chuckle and Snape lit a cigarette, probably just to infuriate her. “Granger, you are so naïve. I honestly cannot remember the last time I did anything that wasn’t self-destructive in some sort of way.”

 The confession hung in the room like a very bad smell and they were silent for a while.

 “I should go and check on my parents,” Hermione said. “And restore their memories.”

 Harry suddenly felt terribly alone. Apart from Ginny there wasn’t really anyone waiting for him and he didn’t even know if she was okay, if she was alive. Maybe he could send owls to Hogwarts and to the Order and ask how everyone was.

  He did exactly that, describing what happened and then sat back down on the sofa. Hermione had fallen asleep, lightly snoring. Harry watched her and thought about Ron: how stupid he was leaving them like that, he didn’t deserve her anyway.

 Harry felt the obsidian glare on him and when he looked up, he saw the all too familiar sneer on his former Potions Master.

 “It’s not like that,” Harry said quickly. “She is like my sister. I love her, but not in that way.”

 Snape snorted. “I didn’t need to know that, Potter.”

 The man was slurring his words considerably and with the precision of a very drunken man, squinting, he tried to pour himself another glass and failed miserably. He chucked the glass behind him and just drank from the bottle.